Moving On
by Celestial Chaos
Summary: Set just before episode 4x01 'Charmed Again'. A one shot about how Piper reflects just a little on the day of Prue's funeral, and how her position has changed in the family. Paige is unheard of at this point in time. Please read and review!


Author's Note: I wrote this story while with my family this Thanksgiving. Since Charmed has been a part of my life for...about 9 years now (since I've watched it from the very beginning), the Halliwells kind of feel like part of my family. This probably sounds weird, but anyways. I just thought about Piper and Prue and how the two of them were really close, and I wanted to write a little into how Piper felt on the day of Prue's funeral. So, here it is. :) Also, I don't own these characters. Although sometimes I wish I did! Don't forget to review please!

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It was still very hard to believe. 

Piper still thought it was a dream; a nasty dream that she was going to wake up from, and then everything was going to be okay. She was going to wake up and the smell of coffee was going to waft up the stairs--the sign that Prue was up and moving around. Her older sister had always been the first one up, and the last one down. Prue watched over her and Phoebe with a vigil that neither of them had ever really noticed.

Piper had asked Leo for some time alone before Prue's funeral. She was sitting on her ottoman in her room, staring at herself in her vanity mirror. Despite the concealer that she had put under her eyes, she could still see the dark circles, the remnants of her nights of crying herself to sleep. Just thinking about them brought that familiar yet uncomfortably tight feeling in her throat, and she cleared it, looking away from the mirror. She wasn't going to cry right now. No, now she needed to be strong; strong for Phoebe, strong for Leo, and strong for their friends and family.

Faintly, she sighed. There was a shakiness in her chest that had settled there against her will, a shakiness that expressed her anxiety and her discomfort. Part of her felt like she couldn't do this, like she was going to panic and break down the second she got up to the podium to deliver Prue's eulogy. Folded in her hands was the paper that she had written it on. She lifted it up and unfolded it, looking over the words but not exactly reading them. Doing so now was going to make it harder to say it later, and she already knew the eulogy word for word. Reading over it a dozen times plus would do that, she thought to herself.

Piper glanced over her shoulder while folding the paper back up again. The manor was quiet. She couldn't hear Phoebe moving around, or Leo. It was funny that, of all the things that were going to be affected by the loss of Prue, she was thinking about how silent things were going to be. Sure, after a while it would pick up--demons never gave them much peace. But for the days, weeks, and maybe even months that were to follow, Piper knew that adjusting to the missing presence of her sister was going to take just about every fiber of her being...and then some.

Even if she felt somewhat guilty in thinking it, she knew that it was going to affect her more than it would Phoebe. Piper had always looked up to Prue, had always admired her strength. Every time that she was unsure her sister had been there to help her through it. Now Piper was going to have to step into that role. She felt a ping of pain poke at her heart. She didn't want to take Prue's place. It was_ Prue's_. It just felt..._wrong_. And Phoebe didn't have to think about that, or worry about it. She was the youngest and had two older sisters to take care of her.

"What am I going to do without you?" Piper asked the mirror, half-expecting her older sister to materialize behind her and answer her. When she didn't, Piper let out a soft snort.

She craned her neck to send a glance at the nearby clock on the wall. Prue's funeral was approaching. They were going to have to leave soon. When Piper turned and stared at herself in the mirror she heard a gentle knocking on the door behind her.

"Come in," she said. She knew who it was.

After a moment's pause her younger sister, Phoebe, stepped into the room, who shut the door behind her. She was dressed in a simple black dress, and her hair was pinned back with two tendrils hanging down on either side of her face. She came up beside Piper, put her hands on either side of her sister's shoulders, and she pursed her lips momentarily.

"You ready?" Phoebe asked quietly.

"I don't think I'll ever be ready," Piper replied to her sister with a soft sigh, looking down at the paper in her hands. She felt Phoebe's hands rubbing up and down her shoulders and upper arms. A small, half-smile appeared on her face. "But for Prue, I'll sure as hell try my best."


End file.
